Ben Sahlmüller
@bensahlmueller.bsky.social
Mathematician obsessed with social organization and change.
Speaks bullshit but prefers not to.
Fediverse: @b3n@g0v.social
Speaks bullshit but prefers not to.
Fediverse: @b3n@g0v.social
That might also solve his mansion-problem for at least four years.
December 4, 2025 at 7:48 PM
That might also solve his mansion-problem for at least four years.
“Things that cannot go on forever will one day stop.” I’m not too surprised a generation that has decades instead of years left is somewhat weary to buy into the game now. Hard to imagine a world where asset prices rise another order of magnitude like they did for the current owners.
November 29, 2025 at 2:00 AM
“Things that cannot go on forever will one day stop.” I’m not too surprised a generation that has decades instead of years left is somewhat weary to buy into the game now. Hard to imagine a world where asset prices rise another order of magnitude like they did for the current owners.
On both sides you find a bunch of college drop-outs for whom science is a vibe somehow related to spaceships and being smart, not a social process with doubt at its center. Having a contrarian itch, for many it’s also a kind of authority they think lets them ignore institutions. („Einstein, JvN, …“)
November 25, 2025 at 12:43 PM
On both sides you find a bunch of college drop-outs for whom science is a vibe somehow related to spaceships and being smart, not a social process with doubt at its center. Having a contrarian itch, for many it’s also a kind of authority they think lets them ignore institutions. („Einstein, JvN, …“)
Such high-precision lobotomy requires some truly 100x engineering! Can someone head over and ask grok who the genius was who accomplished such feat?
November 20, 2025 at 1:42 AM
Such high-precision lobotomy requires some truly 100x engineering! Can someone head over and ask grok who the genius was who accomplished such feat?
We’re watching a shift where AI simulates the cohesion and reinforcement that used to require an entire online community. A single person can now build a complete parallel reality with nothing more than a prompt window. Which seems bad.
November 19, 2025 at 6:30 PM
Agree.
Your tangent is also interesting. In the early days I expected more cults with their own gods, but I‘ve since read fewer those cases. Psychopathy is the pressure velvet I guess, showing how AI is (so far) inherently „single player.“
Until there‘ll come politics and designed realities.
Your tangent is also interesting. In the early days I expected more cults with their own gods, but I‘ve since read fewer those cases. Psychopathy is the pressure velvet I guess, showing how AI is (so far) inherently „single player.“
Until there‘ll come politics and designed realities.
November 19, 2025 at 6:16 PM
Agree.
Your tangent is also interesting. In the early days I expected more cults with their own gods, but I‘ve since read fewer those cases. Psychopathy is the pressure velvet I guess, showing how AI is (so far) inherently „single player.“
Until there‘ll come politics and designed realities.
Your tangent is also interesting. In the early days I expected more cults with their own gods, but I‘ve since read fewer those cases. Psychopathy is the pressure velvet I guess, showing how AI is (so far) inherently „single player.“
Until there‘ll come politics and designed realities.
Another thought: so much of advertising and hence presenting single life is about reducing friction and actually overcoming challenges. Parenting is to permanently live with friction, even the idea of „fighting“ it is the wrong approach.
November 18, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Another thought: so much of advertising and hence presenting single life is about reducing friction and actually overcoming challenges. Parenting is to permanently live with friction, even the idea of „fighting“ it is the wrong approach.
Family life is also inherently more private than personal life, especially when so much of the latter is directed at gaining status.
Of course you can also try to show off performant parenting, but the chaotic element makes it much more difficult.
Of course you can also try to show off performant parenting, but the chaotic element makes it much more difficult.
November 18, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Family life is also inherently more private than personal life, especially when so much of the latter is directed at gaining status.
Of course you can also try to show off performant parenting, but the chaotic element makes it much more difficult.
Of course you can also try to show off performant parenting, but the chaotic element makes it much more difficult.
Such a great catch!
There is some amazing theory about TP, including the coffee. Enjoy the series, but if you’re curious afterwards: www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AYn...
There is some amazing theory about TP, including the coffee. Enjoy the series, but if you’re curious afterwards: www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AYn...
Twin Peaks ACTUALLY EXPLAINED (No, Really)
YouTube video by Twin Perfect
www.youtube.com
November 16, 2025 at 8:32 PM
Such a great catch!
There is some amazing theory about TP, including the coffee. Enjoy the series, but if you’re curious afterwards: www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AYn...
There is some amazing theory about TP, including the coffee. Enjoy the series, but if you’re curious afterwards: www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AYn...
I read a theory somewhere that the mag 7 missed a correction around 2020, instead got an additional hit during covid, an so Microsoft pushed ChatGPT a year or so forward to take another wave. “AI“ then is a much better story than that thy can‘t outrun gravity any more.
November 7, 2025 at 6:59 PM
I read a theory somewhere that the mag 7 missed a correction around 2020, instead got an additional hit during covid, an so Microsoft pushed ChatGPT a year or so forward to take another wave. “AI“ then is a much better story than that thy can‘t outrun gravity any more.
Incentives? Some of the money certainly wants to hedge their bets and it’s much easier to nudge the opposition to an unpopular president who’s in your pocket towards that president‘s agenda while thy feel even less popular then trying to deal with the backlash and dialectic rebound later.
November 2, 2025 at 7:02 PM
Incentives? Some of the money certainly wants to hedge their bets and it’s much easier to nudge the opposition to an unpopular president who’s in your pocket towards that president‘s agenda while thy feel even less popular then trying to deal with the backlash and dialectic rebound later.
It's because of propaganda and no-one likes to vote for losers and only losers blame themselves for stuff they never did.
(Like all the fringe activist stuff that no actual politician ever campaigned for but policy wonks can't get themselves to stop talking about.)
(Like all the fringe activist stuff that no actual politician ever campaigned for but policy wonks can't get themselves to stop talking about.)
October 28, 2025 at 8:50 PM
It's because of propaganda and no-one likes to vote for losers and only losers blame themselves for stuff they never did.
(Like all the fringe activist stuff that no actual politician ever campaigned for but policy wonks can't get themselves to stop talking about.)
(Like all the fringe activist stuff that no actual politician ever campaigned for but policy wonks can't get themselves to stop talking about.)
How much of the stimulus package is acknowledging that Germany cannot do much about inflation on its own, anyway and will gain nothing by being the only one to have played by the rules?
October 28, 2025 at 8:33 PM
How much of the stimulus package is acknowledging that Germany cannot do much about inflation on its own, anyway and will gain nothing by being the only one to have played by the rules?
The public often conflates management and capital. For many of the powerful CEOs, their actual power comes from owning a lot of the company or at least their somewhat historic relationships to big controlling shareholders. “PMC“ is an aesthetic veneer that cloaks this by being more accessible.
October 25, 2025 at 8:24 PM
The public often conflates management and capital. For many of the powerful CEOs, their actual power comes from owning a lot of the company or at least their somewhat historic relationships to big controlling shareholders. “PMC“ is an aesthetic veneer that cloaks this by being more accessible.
Stephane Brizé made some great movies on modern labor. I especially liked Another World for how it illustrates that management is not only a hard job in terms of cognitive tax and long hours but ultimately emotional and even moral labor.
boxd.it/oJ0i
boxd.it/oJ0i
Another World (2021)
An executive manager, his wife and his family, at the point when his professional choices are about to overturn all their lives. Philippe Lemesle and his wife are separating, their love irretrievably ...
boxd.it
October 25, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Stephane Brizé made some great movies on modern labor. I especially liked Another World for how it illustrates that management is not only a hard job in terms of cognitive tax and long hours but ultimately emotional and even moral labor.
boxd.it/oJ0i
boxd.it/oJ0i
„I’m paying myself” - does he have a concept of the legal formalities and the social roles involved that could explain this strange trade between the two ”I”s? Sometimes I wonder whether he has any sense of the collective as a level of sense-making at all.
October 22, 2025 at 11:16 AM
„I’m paying myself” - does he have a concept of the legal formalities and the social roles involved that could explain this strange trade between the two ”I”s? Sometimes I wonder whether he has any sense of the collective as a level of sense-making at all.
The way Musk decided to change grok instead of his own believes when both clashed is a good warning for why it doesn’t.
October 20, 2025 at 10:54 AM
The way Musk decided to change grok instead of his own believes when both clashed is a good warning for why it doesn’t.
Only a VC can think that an idea is a single thing that you just have and for which the world will give you a lot of money after waiting a bit and not a weird creature that needs to be nourished through work just to get the right „resolution.“
October 17, 2025 at 10:20 PM
Only a VC can think that an idea is a single thing that you just have and for which the world will give you a lot of money after waiting a bit and not a weird creature that needs to be nourished through work just to get the right „resolution.“
If that’s what people really thought the gap between “no reason to protest, all normal” and ”not possible to protest, new normal“ would have been awkwardly small.
October 17, 2025 at 5:04 PM
If that’s what people really thought the gap between “no reason to protest, all normal” and ”not possible to protest, new normal“ would have been awkwardly small.
Wouldn’t be surprised if many turn around once the wind shifts again. They will definitely prefer to have Newsom in their pocket than AOC grabbing for it.
October 11, 2025 at 6:56 AM
Wouldn’t be surprised if many turn around once the wind shifts again. They will definitely prefer to have Newsom in their pocket than AOC grabbing for it.
Nah, it’s been here for a long time already, just takes time to crawl into the mainstream. See eg Andreessen’s 2020 manifesto, a16z.com/its-time-to-.... The phrase was dead then already, people were referring to it as BUIDL (a la HODL).
It’s Time to Build | Andreessen Horowitz
Every Western institution was unprepared for the coronavirus pandemic, despite many prior warnings. This monumental failure of institutional effectiveness will reverberate for the rest of the decade, ...
a16z.com
October 1, 2025 at 8:23 PM
Nah, it’s been here for a long time already, just takes time to crawl into the mainstream. See eg Andreessen’s 2020 manifesto, a16z.com/its-time-to-.... The phrase was dead then already, people were referring to it as BUIDL (a la HODL).
I never bought they really thought that then, don’t do it now. You don’t run Biden and Harris if you think this is your one chance to stop authoritarianism. You would use the time after the election to get some bipartisan firewalls up. You wouldn’t stay silent now calling everything a “distraction.”
October 1, 2025 at 5:28 PM
I never bought they really thought that then, don’t do it now. You don’t run Biden and Harris if you think this is your one chance to stop authoritarianism. You would use the time after the election to get some bipartisan firewalls up. You wouldn’t stay silent now calling everything a “distraction.”
It helped me to understand what people mean by post-literacy and a return to mysticism. Even thousands of words, even essays can lack not only coherent arguments but even the simplest foundation of concepts to start with.
September 25, 2025 at 1:34 PM
It helped me to understand what people mean by post-literacy and a return to mysticism. Even thousands of words, even essays can lack not only coherent arguments but even the simplest foundation of concepts to start with.